This is a copy by Minnigerode of the portrait of the Empress by Winterhalter. Queen Victoria requested a copy of a portrait of the Empress by Winterhalter ‘as a record of the lovely Empresses visit. None of her Photographs do her justice or give a real idea of her’. The Empress Elizabeth was the daughter of Maximilian, Duke of Bavaria. She married the Emperor Francis Joseph in 1854.

Colourful butterflies gather on the head of this caiman to collect salt - an important mineral for their survival. This photo was taken while on a scientific expedition to the Amazon to study reptile and amphibian diversity. The expedition was led by researchers from the Herpetology Division at the University of Michigan and included participants from Peru and Australia. A number of minerals are a scarce resource throughout Amazonia and so this behaviour allows these invertebrates access to salt, much like the clay licks that are used by a variety of vertebrates. This particular phenomenon where butterflies and bees congregate on the heads and around the eyes of caimans and turtles has been documented before but what is unique here is the simultaneous number of butterfly species and the way in which each species is associated with its own kind.

This photograph received special commendation from the 2016 Royal Society Publishing photography competition. The Royal Society

The same phenomena, but with a turtle. In Ecuador's Yasuní National Park, butterflies sip a yellow-spotted river turtle's tears (Podocnemis unifilis). The mineral-rich liquid helps the insects reproduce. In exchange, the reptile gets a good eye-cleaning.

This is an open art blog, so you could find images eventually offensive or umconfortable.

If you're an artist and find here images of your art you want to be removed, just tell me and I'll do it immediately. I try to ask for permission always if artist is alive and there's a way to contact, bot not always is possible and there are things I think worth to be known.

In any case, the copyrights of all the images contained in this blog, except where noted, belong to the artists or the legal owners of such rights, and have been published nonprofit and for the only purpose of make the works known to the general public.

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